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Mr. Harford is a renowned economist and a gifted writer and communicator, who successfully achieved in this short and well written book the difficult task of explaining to the general public the complexities of key economic principles in very simple terms. However, do not be confused, this book, though equally entertaining, is no Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. The author's 2008 book, The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World, is actually more Freakonomics style.
Have you heard of price elasticity and price signals, scarcity power, market failures, marginal cost, externalities, asymmetric and imperfect information, moral hazard, stock prices and random walk, and game theory?
Mr. Harford manages to explain the concepts behind this jargon in simple words with everyday life examples, allowing you to understand why the production cost of the cheapest oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait is just around $2 a barrel but we ended paying $50 (or up to $140 last year); why we pay $3 for a cappuccino but coffee growers in the third world just get a few cents for each cup; the rationale behind congestion pricing (the entire Chapter 4 is devoted to this controversial policy and how it also applies for curbing pollution); the economic reasons behind the failures of the US health insurance system; and the predictability of the stock market (the current financial crises proves Harford's point, who wrote about the "rational fools" in March 2005, and within the context of the dot-com bubble). In general terms, the first seven chapters provide the reader an opportunity to grasp key concepts and principles in the field of microeconomics.
The three last chapters of the book take a different approach as the book turns more into the territory of macroeconomics, exploring equally interesting and up-to-date issues regarding economic growth, international trade, competition, the theory of comparative advantage, and of course, globalization. The reader is introduced to these concepts with a chapter on Cameroon, used as a case study to explain the reasons for poor countries being poor, and highlighting the role corruption, weak institutions, and trade barriers. The last chapter in contrast, presents how China was able to achieve explosive growth rates during the last three decades, growing faster than any country in history, rising from Mao's disastrous economic experiments through the power of market and prices. Chapter 9 is a must read, as he discusses the main issues regarding globalization in a nutshell. Here Mr. Harford courageously debunks several myths regarding the alleged negative environmental impacts and other associated evils of globalization. Not surprisingly he wisely chose the examples of Cameroon and China to support his point of view.
This book comes very handy for the layman especially during these days of global economic crisis. I have a background on economics, and I do highly recommend it for anyone planning or having second thoughts about studying economics, the book will provide you with quite a general picture of what economics is really about. I also recommend it for those citizens interested in understanding a bit more about key economic principles, its everyday application, and who do not want to be easily fooled by politicians, interest groups, the media, nor even by many of the so-called "experts" and "gurus". The world would be a better place if every voter in the planet could grasp the basic concepts presented in this book.
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Kwev
Very easy to get to grips with - an excellent primer on Economics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2024